IN THE wake of the noise and heat of the People's National Party's election of a new leader, the winner must quickly get to work. As Prime Minister-designate, Mrs. Simpson Miller's tasks are immediate, and are at once, internal, national and regional.
It was inevitable that the trenchant nature of the campaign for the presidency would have led to divisions within the leadership and the wider membership of the party. Her task of overcoming these, it appears, will be made easier than would have been expected by the gracious nature in which the other contenders have accepted her victory.
The need to unify what could be a fractious party has nothing to do with its ability to successfully remain in power, but everything to do with the Government's ability to attend to pressing national and regional matters. An incumbent party distracted by internecine preoccupations cannot properly address issues that will demand the new leader's full attention.
One area of relative darkness in Mrs. Simpson Miller's plans is what she intends to do about the country's most pressing problem of crime, and its attendant causes and effects, including unemployment and the economy.
While a lack of clarity may have been a strategy for internal party politics, the nation needs to know immediately what are her plans for attempting to reduce crime that is constraining economic growth, draining resources needed to improve the social infrastructure, and depressing the morale and confidence of Jamaicans.
The Prime Minister-designate is taking charge at a time of fundamental change in the regional and global economy. Jamaica and some of its neighbours are attempting to confront potential economic damage from globalisation by the creation of a regional economic union.
Mr. Patterson has stated clearly Jamaica's commitment to this. We believe that Jamaica's small, narrow and export-dependent economy needs to be part of a wider space if it is to grow. Mrs. Simpson Miller should state immediately her intentions for regional economic cooperation.
With the leadership of the PNP having been decided, Jamaicans should benefit from a period of vigorous and sensible politics. We hope that the change will reinvigorate the moribund Jamaica Labour Party to become more creative in addressing important issues.
Mr. Bruce Golding, the Opposition Leader, has promised that the new PNP leader will have no honeymoon. We hope that both leaders, being relatively new, will offer Jamaicans new ideas through engaging debate that will suggest worthwhile solutions to the persistent and crippling problems facing the nation.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
